


The Fade-Touched Daughter

by Katalyna_Rose



Series: Vhenan and Associated Stories (Lyna Lavellan) [3]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Childbirth
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-17
Updated: 2018-04-17
Packaged: 2019-04-24 07:41:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 761
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14350971
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Katalyna_Rose/pseuds/Katalyna_Rose
Summary: A child comes early to a pair of Dalish elves, and when she is born she does not breathe until the Fade wraps around her to give her life. She has a destiny that her parents cannot yet see.





	The Fade-Touched Daughter

She was born in the wrong month and her parents thought she was going to die. With over a month left to carry the child, her mother went hunting. Close to camp and easy, wanting only to catch a couple of rabbits for stew. She hated being still and feeling useless, but her bondmate would not let her go alone. The child came as they were collecting a rabbit they'd caught, suddenly bent over and screaming as water rushed down her legs.

"Fen'an! It's too soon!" she cried, pale hair falling over her tanned face. "The child is not ready, not grown enough! Will it even breathe if it comes now?" Her hand crushed her husband's as he struggled to bring her to him. He lifted her into his arms as she cried out in pain.

"We are not far from camp," he told her, his voice low and urgent. "I will carry you home and perhaps Deshanna can do something for you." But her water was broken and the child was coming. He knew that, but he could only try to offer comfort as he moved as fast as he could with his heavily pregnant wife in his arms towards their clan's encampment.

They were within sight of the furthest guard statue when the situation became urgent. "Fen'an! The child! I... I feel it! It is here!" Ashavise cried, her sweaty face pinched in pain. Cursing in their people's tongue under his breath, Fen'an was forced to put her down in the shadow of the statue of Fen'harel. The Great Betrayer sat watch for them as he frantically parted her legs and removed the soaked fabric of her pants. He bundled it under her back to keep her upright enough to ease delivery and by the time he was between her legs again a bloody head was beginning to push through.

"Push, vhenan, you must push!" Fen'an cried, removing his shirt to catch the child as it was born. This part of the woods was full of thin parts of the Veil, though a hunter like Fen'an could not feel it as clearly as his mage wife. But he felt the air pulse with power, would swear until the day he died that the statue of Fen'harel's eyes glowed with the purple light of the deepest parts of the Fade, where dreamers did not dare to wander. He did not have any more time to ponder the Veil and the powers that seemed to stand watch around them because all at once his child was born and he caught her, pulled her free.

"A girl," he told his sobbing wife as she struggled to find her breath. The infant was tiny, so very small and delicate, and she made no noise at all. Desperate to find life within this little miracle of theirs, he pressed two fingers against her breast bone and pressed, shook, tried to get her to breathe, to cry, to open her eyes, to do anything at all. "Breathe, da'len, come on. You can do it. You are as strong as your mamae, I know it. You can do this. Breathe!"

With his desperate cry the power that could be felt all around them surged, pulsed, beat on his eardrums, then paused in breathless waiting before converging on the too-still bundle in his arms. At once, his daughter opened her mouth and began to wail, eyes flashing open and glowing with the power that had given her life. He stared in awe as the power settled behind her tiny breast and her eyes settled into a vibrant violet unlike anything he had seen.

"She lives?" Ashavise murmured, exhaustion stealing over her. Grinning, he moved to her side and handed her daughter to her, supporting her back better by letting her lean against his legs. Grinning and sobbing, she touched their daughter's face with shaking fingers.

"She is so pale," the new mother whispered, voice hoarse from screaming in labor. "And these eyes... She is Fade-touched. Isn't she? That's what that feeling was, why she waited so long before she cried?"

Fen'an leaned down to kiss her forehead and wipe away her pale, sweaty hair. "It seems so, vhenan. She is... a miracle. She will live and grow strong and healthy. It'll be alright, vhenan."

"Lyna," Ashavise declared, kissing her daughter's brow. "I want to name her Lyna."

Fen'an smiled down at the pair. "A perfect name for a perfect daughter," he agreed. "She will grow up to do great things for the People. I can feel it."

 


End file.
